


The light shines brightest

by woodentarantula



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Fluff, M/M, but au where ryoji lives in the dorm will be my downfall, god i dont know what to tag this, whatever this is Gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-10
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-05 22:39:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,269
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5392883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/woodentarantula/pseuds/woodentarantula
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You were the one that suggested he be invited to the dorm.<br/>You ask him the next day at school and he moves in on Sunday.</p><p>2nd person from Minato's pov.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Aigis’s wary observations backfired for her but damn if you weren’t glad.

Mitsuru had insisted on observing Ryoji and, with Fuuka’s help, had gotten footage of him awake during the dark hour. Not just not a coffin, but awake, standing on a deserted sidewalk, gazing at the green sky.

What with a formal authority gone, there had been a meeting. You were the one that suggested he be invited to the dorm. At Aigis’s glares you brought up the fairly sound argument that they all could observe him more easily if he was close.

You ask him the next day at school and he moves in on Sunday. All of his luggage surmounts to his school bag and a backpack full of text books. Even today he’s in his uniform and you wonder how he manages to live so comfortably in a starched shirt. He sighs into the empty room. “Disappointed?” you ask.

“No, no, it’s just…” He glances over the plain bed and barren desk, then turns to face you, smiling. “It has potential.”

The word choice strikes you but you don’t let it show. “Want to go into town and pick up something?” Why are you offering? You hardly know this guy. Maybe that’s why, really. You seem to be doing that kind of thing lately.

Ryoji beams. You swear you could power a small city with the light of his smile.

* * *

It takes a little traveling, but you manage to find a small store with a home item’s section. Ryoji picks out a welcome mat with butterflies and soft yellow curtains. You point out that his room in already inside and a mat is pretty useless. He doesn’t care.

Ryoji manages to convince you to roam in children’s furnishings and finds a pack of glow in the dark stick-stars. He stares at them, fascinated, turning the box around to watch them fall. “What are these?”

You feel as if your times out with Elizabeth have prepared you for these sort of questions. “You stick them to your ceiling and they shine when you turn off the lights.” You watch for a few seconds as Ryoji continues looking at the stars. “Do you want them?”

You end up buying three packs.

* * *

When you return to the dorm, it’s late and you go straight to sleep but Ryoji asks if after school you could help him put the stars up and you can’t refuse him.

Each pack comes with five large stars, then small ones, and a single crescent moon.

“Could we make gemini?”

“It’s your ceiling.” It’s a simple reply and for a second you’re worried it was rude but Ryoji’s smiling as he tells you where the stickers go, having it mostly over the bed. You would offer to get your laptop and bring up a picture but he seems to know the arrangement by heart.

When it’s finished there’s a handful of stars left and you put them in no particular order on the wall next to the bed. Ryoji appears behind your shoulder, asking “Who’s that? I don’t know it.”

“Nothing specific,” you reply. “I just thought they looked nice like this.”

Ryoji grins again. “It’s yours then. What should we call it?”

You glance away, hiding under your bangs. “It doesn’t have to be called anything.”

He makes some cheerful hum of understanding and there’s an uncomfortable silence. At least, you find it uncomfortable. It’s just you two and you feel like you should say something but you’re no good at that. The words tumble out before you really think them. “Why gemini?”

“A kind of memorial, I guess.” At your confused glance he points at the top of the formation, where two of the larger stars are. “That’s Castor. Next to him is Pollux. I think you called him Polyduces.”

Your eyes go wide and Ryoji lets out a wry laugh. “Do you know their story?”

You shake your head slightly with a quiet “Do you?”

He laughs again and speaks in a hushed tone to match your question. “Castor and Pollux were the twin sons of Leda and Zeus and so were demi-gods.”

“I thought there were discrepancies over that.” Damnit.

“So you do know it.”

You look away and adress the wall. “Well, you might as well finish.”

There’s another one of Ryoji’s giggles but he does continue. “I’ll skip ahead a bit.” You never actually noticed when you ended up across the bed, laying on it the wrong way, but your socked feet rest on the wall and Ryoji gestures at the ceiling’s stars. He tells you about the swan and Tyndareus, Clytemnestra and Helen, about Castor’s death and Pollux’s plea to stay with his brother.

At the end of it Ryoji sighs. “It’s sad, isn’t it?”

“A little bit,” you reply. “but they’re together now, so it’s a happy end.”

You’re no good at initiation, but you lay your hand between the two of you and knock your knuckles against Ryoji’s. He takes the hint easily and slips his fingers between yours.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda sat on this for a while cause I wasn't really sure where to put this. I'm still not really but here it be. This bit's more of a thought stream than a coherent story like before.

Ryoji tells you stories, now, both when you ask and when you don’t. 

You ask him who Io is and he replies with “Which one? The girl or the moon?”

You’ve figured it out by now but you're not sure yet if you care. He spins the story to you on the tram home of the beautiful daughter of Inachus who had the misfortune to catch Zues’s eye and in turn enrage Hera, leading to her transformation. At your gentle prodding, he tells you every version of the tale he knew. You watch the autumn sun set in the shine of his eyes.

Another day you ask Ryoji what Juno has to do with peacocks. Of course, she has everything to do with peacocks and you hear the story of the most loyal servant. 

Once, he stops in the hall to tell you the etymology of Cerberus. You manage to laugh at how pets are always pets.

A quiet afternoon between the two of you and Ryoji talks about wind and how he protects travelers. You ask him why Hermes might be associated with fire. He shrugs then but later in homeroom he stands by your desk to say that Hermes might be considered a light for humanity. 

He winds you tales of the Amazons and Artemis, about how Cesar isn’t a person but a position. He tells you about Athena, about a statute that protected a city, about titans and children and parents.

One day you ask him, fear brimming in your eyes that you can’t hide, who he is. He tells you about creation. When you push him to go on he tells you about destruction.  
You’re crying and scared even more though you’d never admit it. You hold Ryoji close because yes, this is Ryoji, and a fistfull of weeks has never felt so short.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [flexes muscles] wanna hear about greek mythos


	3. Chapter 3

Ryoji follows you sometimes. You let him.

He automatically tacks onto you after class, riding on the tram with you wherever you go. You’ve spent entire afternoons in the arcade, letting Ryoji talk as much as he wants and you talk as much as you can while you thoroughly destroy him at every game they have.

He sits on the sidelines during kendo practice, cheering for absolutely everyone. You tell him that the point of sports was to pick a side and just cheer for them. Ryoji says that's silly, everyone someone cheering for them. You nod and smile as best as you can, unsure how to answer. 

Every so often you tell him quietly that he shouldn’t tag along this time. You’ve never had to explain to him how much people like to confide in you, but you think he understands. Whether he does or doesn’t, when you apologize, Ryoji smiles softly and says it’s just fine.

The best days, you’ve found, are the ones where he brushes your hand while you sit at your desk and the both of you spend the rest of the afternoon curled up on one of your mattresses sleeping or talking or doing absolutely nothing at all.

This carried on for weeks but there’s once when you rose from your seat, scanned the classroom, and can’t find Ryoji. You search every hall, even asking people if they’ve seen him, and they seem to only answer him with more questions. He was in class today wasn’t he? Did he just leave that quickly? You’re halfway to the sports building to see if her just assumed you would go to practice, but it’s Saturday. Ryoji knows your schedule as well as you do at this point and the clubs don’t meet on Saturdays. You grind to a halt in the open hallway, taking a breath to calm yourself and let the December sun warm your skin under your jacket. You stretch your back a little and you notice a speck of bright yellow in the corner of your eye.

Ryoji’s sitting behind the persimmon tree, legs pulled close and chin to his chest, eyes hidden. You gaze at him quietly but he either doesn’t notice you or he won’t look. You take a seat next to him, assuming the same position and so close that your thighs touch. Ryoji’s head moves just enough to register who you are, his chin slides to rest on his knees and he gives you a sleepy smile. “Hey.” he whispers.

“Hey,” you smile back. “What’s up?”

Ryoji shrugs. “Were you going somewhere?”

“Maybe…” You glance around a little. It’s starting to grow dark and cold and you’re getting worried that Ryoji won’t move from this spot unless you give him a reason to. “we could go see Bunkichi and Mitsuko.”

Ryoji smiles again. “That’d be nice.”

* * *

 

The bookstore is warm and inviting as ever and Bunkichi greets you both loudly and boisterously while Mitsuko gives a small wave. The four of you chatter for a few minutes but there’s no familiar sensation of having grown closer and honestly that’s fine. Ryoji starts gravitating toward the piles of books in the store and you follow him, glancing at titles and trying to find what might have bothered him so badly as to hide behind the tree.

His movements are slow and deliberate; he looks exhausted. He carefully pulls a book from a shelf stacks two deep. Its old, older than you probably, it’s textured, grey cover embossed in twinkling gold letters. It’s in English but you can make out most of it. “What’s it say?” 

“Tales of the Moon and Her Handmaidens/” he replies softly, tracing his fingers down the spine. He opens it slowly and the pages crackle with life. There’s a table of contents that runs all the way down the paper. Ryoji’s eyes flick across them and he flips to the next page where the first story starts.

You lean over his shoulder and try to read a line. The words are long and overly formal. You’d probably be able to read it okay but it’d take some doing. “Do you want it?”

Ryoji starts to close the book. “You don’t have to.”

“I don’t mind you know.”

“Yeah.” Ryoji smiles softly.

* * *

 

The ride back to the dorm is quiet and the two of you only wave in greeting to most of SEES crowded in the lounge. You tamp up the stairs and Ryoji looks both surprised and not when you shoulder your way in his room and sit yourself down on the corner of his bed.

He doesn’t look at you as he sets the book on the tiny, school issue desk shoved against the wall. He turns slowly to lean with his back to is  but still he won’t meet you eyes, but you know he can feel your expectant gaze. 

The silence creeps on. You sense it growing uncomfortable long and break it as gently as possible. “you’re allowed to want things.”

“there’s so little time…” is his reply. Ryoji keeps staring the floor and the sentence is so quiet and small but you can hear his voice cracking. 

You make you way to him, standing close. “They we should make the most of it. Wasn’t that something you said?” You rest your hand on Ryoji’s, pressed against the table top, facing him. You hold your breath and try to put as much meaning in your eyes as you can manage. Ryoji looks at you with pain in his. “We should do what we want to do, right?” 

Ryoji’s brow furrows like he’s about to ask a question but you squeeze his hand and his face slackens. 

You had imagined that kissing Ryoji would’ve been different than kissing Yukari or Fuuka. You’re right, but it’s not the differ you had expected.

Ryoji is soft but he’s still him. He doesn’t smell like flowers or taste like strawberry chapstick. He smells clear and fresh like his hair product, tastes like the bread he had for lunch. You rest your wrists on the curve of his neck and where your hands brush his cheeks is burning hot, where his hands come to your face is icy cold. 

Ryoji pulls back slowly and you want to drag him back and make him kiss you for a year straight but you let him draw back. He’s twined his fingers in the hair by your ears and lets his hands sit along your jaw, giving you a sleepy smile like back at the school, but you’ve decided this time it’s a fair bit more happy. 

“Read me some of those stories sometime.” you finally say.

“Of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm honestly really happy with this? If nothing else this is the longest single thing I've written. I've actually managed to get a 'chapter' of something over 1k! proud of me


End file.
